Landscape Renovations that Make Big Impact

Have you been pulling into your driveway, shaking your head, thinking something doesn’t look right? Perhaps you have been sitting on the front porch contemplating and reimagining your home’s landscape layout. Besides regular maintenance and quick changes, there is a lot more that can be done for your curb appeal and personal enjoyment. Consider these suggestions to help revitalize your landscape and outdoor living areas. Before long, you’ll linger a little longer in the front drive and on the front porch admiring the new and improved!

Right Plant-Right Place

Let’s start with landscaping. Over time, garden beds can get tired and overcrowded. When you initially started your landscape, you may not have had a strategic plan. You may have generously accepted your neighbor’s extra bulbs and propagations. Not that neighbors aren’t a good source of inspiration, but sometimes the right plant goes in the wrong place. In this particular case, plants will end up overgrown, making the space look quite messy. Other times perennials can take over if they are a ‘thug’ and create havoc around the rest of the neighboring plant material. Cleaning up these misplaced plants can revitalize the landscape and refresh the look of your foundation plantings.

Talk to your landscape designer to help revitalize your beds with a new low-maintenance design to include updated and new cultivars that are pest and disease resistant. Often pests or diseases attack older plantings causing parts of the plant to die or look sad. A carefully crafted landscape design can give you a landscape renovation that will have you awarded the ‘Yard of the Month’ in no time!

Add Dimension and Layers

You will find that foundation beds and plantings look better with dimension and layers. Layers can be achieved by expanding the garden beds out from the foundation and adding layers of plant material instead of one row. A more natural look is created, and it softens the corners of the home. Our rule of thumb is always to add plantings with attractive colors, sizes, and textures to showcase the home and highlight the curb appeal.

Additionally, your landscape beds should be deep enough for the height and scale of your property and home; misproportion is one of the main factors in a lackluster softscape. Having material that covers walkways or windows will be obtrusive overtime when they have reached their peak potential. When adding extra bed depth, be sure always to manicure the edges for a clean and professional look.

Less Maintenance During Droughts

We can all agree, it’s been a hot summer. During these drier times, homeowners may feel the pressure to water and water again to save the plants or forget or go on vacation and return to once green shrubs, now crispy brown. Installing an irrigation system is beneficial in so many ways. Drip irrigation systems cut out the guessing, time spent watering, saves water, and allows you to set a timer and go on vacation, worry-free! Diversely, if you prefer a more natural or rustic look, native plantings can withstand higher temperatures and require less maintenance. However, do note that it is imperative to water native plantings well until established and Mother Nature can naturally take over.

Upgrading the Hardscape

Over time, we are all susceptible to overlooking the obvious at our own homes. Once in awhile, we need to walk outside and view the landscape with the eyes of a guest. Try it! Stroll down the walkway to the front door or walk around the paver patio and observe with a fresh sense. Perhaps your hardscape is a little dull and needs a proper pressure washing or maybe even a complete overhaul.

If your hardscapes are in good condition, there are always ways to refresh, such as adding a border along the perimeter of the pathway for extra width, dimension, and interest. Add structure with an arbor to include colorful and fragrant plantings like intertwining roses and clematis. The visual appeal of climbing flowers certainly adds a beautiful and welcoming entrance.

For the first touch of curb appeal, why not update your mailbox area at the front of the driveway? Transforming your plastic mailbox on a post to a custom stone or brick structure with a curated bed of landscaping and lighting demands attention and evokes envy!

Another consideration is to create custom outdoor living spaces perfectly tailored to your family, home, and property. Landscape renovations can take your outdoor living enjoyment to another level by extending your livable space and creating an atmosphere your family loves. Incorporating a fire pit or fireplace to delight in the evening or on a chilly autumn day or an outdoor kitchen to provide your family’s favorite meals and snacks during the dog days of summer will induce more time together enjoying each other’s company, creating memories! Just think, marshmallows, hot chocolate, and campfire songs around the pit. Outdoor time equals excellent family time.

Focal Point Additions to the Landscape Renovations

Outdoor focal points are a key component to a successful outdoor living space! When you look out the main window (where you spend a lot of time), do you see a focal point or a beautiful feature that captures your attention? It’s comparative to the centerpiece on your dining room table or the decorations on your fireplace mantel. Often, designers like to take mental notes of the aesthetic inside of a client’s home so they can carry that style to the outdoors, creating a comprehensive, cohesive space, inside and out!

Focal points such as a beautiful specimen tree or dry stack stone fireplace with seating walls are amazing eye-catching and functional visuals. Professional landscape designers have the ability to walk an outdoor living space and work with their clients on creating an updated landscape renovation, including focal points that will go well beyond their wildest dreams and make a significant impact on outdoor enjoyment.

Getting It Done

Here at MasterPLAN Outdoor Living, our first meeting starts with getting to know our clients and their motivations behind their outdoor aspirations! Partnering with our clients ensures that we can create intuitively custom and unique outdoor living spaces, suit to fit their needs, and provide the installation with sheer skill and craftsmanship!

For those who live in the Poconos, the Lehigh Valley through the Main Line of Philadelphia and western New Jersey who dream of transforming their backyards into stylish and well-planned outdoor living spaces, reach out to MasterPLAN! Our 3D full-color design models help our clients visualize their dream outdoor living spaces, and our Love Your Design Guarantee ensures that we keep at it until you fall in love with your property all over again. It’s time to live your best life outdoors!!